Is it me or is the news becoming dumbed down? The evening news broadcasts used to be sombre and stately affairs that would let you know of the important comings and goings around the world. Now they seem to be little more than tittle tattle and heart-tugging stories. The bulletins have become little more than magazines rather than serious attempts at bringing us the news. The breakfast shows are even worse.
War, politics, natural and manmade disasters have been replaced with what someone was wearing, who slept with who (consenting or otherwise) and who tweeted what. Conversation has replaced the serious analysis of world affairs that we used to enjoy. Soundbites rule. Images dominate. Celebrities are the stock in trade.
There is so much going on in the world, it is a big place, yet the news seems to flow one way, blown in with the weather from America. I care as much about what is going on in the east as I do in the west yet it would seem that America is all that the journalists are interested in. I suspect it is because they speak English and we are now too lazy to even translate.
Global warming, instability and conflict, refugee crises, tension in North Korea, human rights and Brexit, among many others, are all worth more air time yet they are sidelined to fill us up with a diet of inane drivel and pap.
Surely we could do better, if only for professional pride journalists around the world should rise up and tell the stories that they picked their trade to tell. I want to hear about things of global or at least regional significance, things that are actually going to matter but it could be that I am just getting too old and too serious.
Perhaps it is me then.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 